Historic Ft. Walton

Around 600 B.C. Indians were attracted to the Ft.Walton Beach area. The beginning of the city began during the period of the Civil War. John Brooks built a three-room cabin in 1867 on a 111 acrea site. Then other settlers soon followed.

The city had several names over the years, first came Brooks Landing, then Brooksville, named after the Brooks family. Afterwards the city was called Camp Walton, Fort Walton, and finanally Fort Walton Beach, which was named after Colonel George Walton who was secretary of West Florida during the governorship of Andrew Jackson, 1821-1822 and secretary of the East-West Florida territory 1822-26. Colonel George Walton was the son of George Walton, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Governor of Georgia.

Eglin Field was first built in 1933 on 137 acres of land and was used as a bombing and gunnery range by the military from Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama.

Municipality created by Ch. 18539 of the Florida Legislature in 1937. The Town of Fort Walton was formed in 1941, when Legislature pased Ch. 21247.

The establishment of Eglin Air Force Base enhanced the area's growth with construction of the area's roads and bridges.

The name of the city was changed to Fort Walton Beach in 1953 to enhance visitor business for the development of tourism.

  • Brooks Cemetary
  • Brooks House - First Hotel, built along the sound.
  • Buck's Landing
  • Camp Walton School - Establish in 1884.
  • Dr. Beal's Shell Museum
  • Fort Walton Landing
  • Garniers Post Office - first post office, built in 1906. Mail and Supplies were transported by boat from Pensacola.
  • Indian Temple Mound Museum - Museum holding more than 4000 Native American objects found in a 40-mile radius of the downtown area. Largest temple mound on satlwater in the area with over 500,000 basket loads of earth were carried to build it.
  • Old Fort Walton City Hall
  • Old Grace Community Chapel
  • Old Saint Mary's Catholic Church

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